Written Answers Friday 9 October 2009

Scottish Executive

Employment

John Park (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that disabled people have equal access to training opportunities, including apprenticeships.

Fiona Hyslop: Our training opportunities, including apprenticeships, offer a superb vocational grounding to people from all walks of life. Disabled people in Scotland currently have equal access to all such opportunities, although we recognise that participation in the apprenticeship programme is currently low.

  It is therefore essential that the targeting of these opportunities towards underrepresented groups is as effective as possible. In order to attract the widest possible participation, we expect Skills Development Scotland to ensure the effective promotion of opportunities and comprehensive advice and guidance for all individuals.

Justice

Nigel Don (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how the decision to transfer the suspects for the Glasgow Airport bombing to the custody of the Metropolitan Police on 2 July 2007 was taken.

Elish Angiolini: I am aware of claims made in a book published yesterday by a former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Andy Hayman, about the decision to transfer the suspects to London. Mr Hayman’s account of how the decision was taken in July 2007 does not reflect the fact that the only issue was where, legally, the case could be brought to trial, given the cross border nature of the conduct under investigation.

  I am concerned, in particular, about the suggestion that the decision to transfer the suspects to London was a political one. This suggests a basic misunderstanding of my role as the independent head of the system of prosecution in Scotland. The decision was taken solely by me in the public interest with the intention of securing the most effective investigation and prosecution of the terrorist plot. There were no political considerations whatsoever in the decision and to have allowed such considerations would have amounted to a gross breach of my independence.

  Mr Hayman also suggests that time was wasted in persuading me that a transfer was the correct decision. I wish to make it absolutely clear that my decision did not delay the investigation in any way. I recognised the need for an effective cross-border investigation from the very first moment but was keen to ensure, before agreeing to transfer the suspects, that the English prosecutors were absolutely satisfied that the English courts would have jurisdiction over the attack in Glasgow. I received such an assurance from the Attorney General on the afternoon of 2 July 2009 and immediately agreed to the transfer at that point.

  This was absolutely not about lawyers – far less politicians – being obstructive, but it was about lawyers doing their jobs in the interests of justice: no-one, including Mr Hayman, would have thanked me or the Attorney General if it had not been possible to bring the accused to trial for the Glasgow Airport attack.

  The criticisms do a disservice to the very impressive joint work by Scottish and English police and prosecutors which saw one of the terrorists, Bilal Abdulla, sentenced in December 2008 to a minimum of 32 years imprisonment for both attacks.

NHS Staff

Jackson Carlaw (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many days were lost to the NHS as a result of staff absence through illness in each year since 1999, also broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: Information on sickness absence is not centrally held for years 1999-2005.

  NHS boards in Scotland report their sickness absence rates based on contracted hours lost rather than days lost, due to different shift patterns in the NHS Scotland workforce. The latest available information is given in the following table. As can be seen, the rate of sickness absence has fallen from a high of 5.55% in 2007 to 4.95% in 2009 and this represents over 1 million more hours being available to NHSScotland.

  Further information on the statistics, including information on how the data is collected and notes to aid interpretation, is given in the "Background" section of the Workforce Statistics website at:

  www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

  Hours Lost Due to Sickness Absence by NHS Board

  

 Years Ending 31 March
 2006
 2007
 2008
 2009


 
Hours Lost (Percentageof Total Workforce Hours)
Hours Lost (Percentageof Total Workforce Hours)
Hours Lost (Percentageof Total Workforce Hours)
Hours Lost (Percentageof Total Workforce Hours)


 Scotland
13,130,317(5.23%)
14,193,436(5.55%)
13,793,175(5.28%)
13,144,537(4.95%)


 NHS Argyll and Clyde 
 1,062,891
 x
 x
 x


 NHS Ayrshire and Arran
 829,992
 951,890
 945,863
 958,662


 NHS Borders
 226,144
 242,260
 251,650
 250,586


 NHS Dumfries and Galloway
 309,863
 322,110
 363,971
 325,337


 NHS Fife
 752,620
 850,703
 775,641
 768,266


 NHS Forth Valley
 573,400
 624,741
 607,942
 610,068


 NHS Grampian
 1,017,165
 1,139,705
 1,127,814
 1,090,165


 NHS Greater Glasgow
 2,758,109
 x
 x
 x


 NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
 x
 3,930,313
 3,650,907
 3,372,305


 NHS Highland
 469,819
 681,421
 671,359
 700,326


 NHS Lanarkshire
 1,107,691
 1,183,500
 1,125,863
 975,881


 NHS Lothian
 1,788,728
 1,792,335
 1,797,735
 1,700,165


 NHS Orkney
 36,701
 39,998
 43,794
 50,319


 NHS Shetland
 44,271
 42,203
 51,757
 43,084


 NHS Tayside
 1,121,140
 1,206,313
 1,217,683
 1,165,698


 NHS Western Isles
 86,953
 101,722
 86,809
 87,984


 NHS National Services Scotland 
 247,605
 271,782
 276,052
 268,544


 NHS 24
 139,487
 176,705
 152,957
 108,865


 NHS Education For Scotland
 21,080
 20,549
 25,024
 26,988


 NHS Quality Improvement Scotland
 8,396
 8,417
 8,578
 12,717


 NHS Health Scotland
 5,975
 8,989
 12,628
 9,206


 Scottish Ambulance Service 
 390,620
 452,297
 460,277
 428,507


 The State Hospital 
 70,262
 73,531
 60,850
 80,479


 Golden Jubilee
 61,406
 71,950
 78,024
 108,851

Organ Donation

Jackson Carlaw (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many registered organ donors there were in each year since 1999.

Nicola Sturgeon: Available figures for the number of people registered on the Organ Donor Register in Scotland are provided in the following table:

  

 Registration Date
 Number Registered
 Added in Year


 1 April 2000
 420,220
 


 1 April 2001
 652,083
 231,863


 1 April 2002
 754,983
 102,900


 1 April 2003
 877,395
 122,412


 1 April 2004
 1,003,109
 125,714


 1 April 2005
 1,128,700
 125,591


 1 April 2006
 1,252,785
 124,085


 1 April 2007
 1,362,677
 109,892


 1 April 2008
 1,498,412
 135,735


 1 April 2009
 1,638,614
 140,212



  Source: NHS Blood and Transplant.

Organ Donation

Jackson Carlaw (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many new organ donors were registered in each month since May 2007.

Nicola Sturgeon: This information is not held in the form requested. However, available figures showing changes to the number of registrations to the Organ Donor Register each month since May 2007 are demonstrated in the following table:

  

 Registration Date
 Number Registered


 1 April 2007
 1,362,677


 1 May 2007
 1,362,717


 1 June 2007
 1,401,624


 1 July 2007
 1,401,676


 1 August 2007
 1,432,411


 1 September 2007
 1,436,401


 1 October 2007
 1,436,468


 1 November 2007
 1,469,113


 1 December 2007
 1,470,980


 1 January 2008
 1,485,176


 1 February 2008 
 1,498,279


 1 March 2008
 1,498,345


 1 April 2008
 1,498,412


 1 May 2008
 1,498,465


 1 June 2008
 1,545,014


 1 July 2008
 1,555,130


 1 August 2008
 1,566,620


 1 September 2008
 1,578,824


 1 October 2008
 1,589,122


 1 November 2008
 1,602,641


 1 December 2008
 1,608,113


 1 January 2009
 1,619,746


 1 February 2009
 1,628,722


 1 March 2009
 1,638,602


 1 April 2009
 1,638,614


 1 May 2009
 1,651,237


 1 June 2009
 1,662,950


 1 July 2009
 1,680,508


 1 August 2009
 1,690,016


 1 September 2009
 1,702,124



  Source: NHS Blood and Transplant.

Pensions

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-27397 by John Swinney on 29 September 2009, how many of its civil servants are members of the Lothian Pension Fund.

John Swinney: The pension arrangements that operate for Scottish Government civil servants are provided through the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme. No civil servants within the Scottish Government are current members of the Lothian Pension Fund.

Pensions

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-27398 by John Swinney on 29 September 2009, what responsibility it has in relation to the appointment of trustees of the Lothian Pension Fund.

John Swinney: The Scottish Government has no responsibilities in relation to the appointment of trustees for the Lothian Pension Fund. This is a matter for the City of Edinburgh Council.

Prescriptions

Jackson Carlaw (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on unused prescriptions in each year since 1999, also expressed in real terms.

Shona Robison: Information on the cost to the NHS of prescribed medicines not taken by patients or on prescriptions written for patients but not presented for dispensing is not collected centrally. The Scottish Government supports a range of initiatives through the contractual framework for community pharmacists to minimise wastage of medicines. The introduction of the Chronic Medication Service and its associated serial dispensing component will focus on the management of repeat medicines with a view to reduce drug wastage.

Procurement

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the latest performance figure is for paying undisputed invoices within 10 days in each (a) agency for which it is responsible and (b) Scottish Executive directorate.

John Swinney: The Scottish Government aspires to pay all undisputed supplier invoices within 10 working days. During the month of August 2009, as analysed in the following table, 91% of undisputed invoices were paid within 10 working days by the Scottish Government and the executive agencies who use our financial systems. We do not hold information for the executive agencies which have their own financial systems.

  

 Director General Responsibilities:
%


 Economy and Chief Economic Advisor
 88


 Education
 93


 Environment
 90


 Finance and Corporate Services
 94


 Health and Chief Executive NHS Scotland
 77


 Justice and Communities
 88


 Strategy and Ministerial Support
 79


 Agencies sharing SG systems:
 


 Accountant in Bankruptcy
 93


 Disclosure Scotland
 97


 HM Inspectorate of Education
 100


 Student Awards Agency Scotland
 99


 Scottish Courts Service
 90


 Scottish Housing Regulator
 90


 Scottish Public Pensions Agency
 100


 Social Work Inspection Agency
 100


 Transport Scotland
 93



  The Scottish Government also purchases goods and services using Government Procurement Cards (GPC) and payment performance is measured by taking into account both GPC and invoiced transactions. For the month of August 2009, the Scottish Government and bodies sharing our financial systems paid 95% of all transactions within 10 working days.

Scottish Government

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what actions of the Scottish Government require parliamentary approval.

Bruce Crawford: Ministers are accountable to the parliament for the exercise of the powers, duties and functions conferred on them by statute, convention and under the royal prerogative.